This invention relates to beverage bottle carriers in general and in particular to a new and novel wrap-around style beverage bottle carrier having fully integrated product separation means incorporated within the carrier production blank.
In a wrap-around style bottle carrier of the type encompassed by the subject invention, there is generally included within the carrier means for separating the plurality of bottles packaged within the carrier. The separation means generally comprises a separate partition unit which is inserted between adjacent bottles in a packaging machine prior to the bottle carrier production blank being wrapped around the grouping of bottles desired. Other means of product separation include elongated production blanks having partitions formed out of the production blank with butterfly separators being formed within the partition units which are all inserted by the packaging machine within and around the grouping of bottles.
Such prior art type product separation means have the disadvantage of requiring either separate feeder mechanisms for the separate bottle partition unit or else require unusually long production blanks which are costly to produce.